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Colossal western dragon, four legs plus separate leathery wings, clings to cylindrical castle tower; chest and belly press against curved masonry like climbing predator. It dwarfs doorway and balcony; huge shoulders, scaled torso, arched neck fill exterior. Huge near wing flares outward and upward behind body, broad membrane cropped by top and left edges; back and tail extend off-frame. Horned head above doorway bites upper-left arch, teeth sunk between cracked voussoirs. Heavy brows, ivory teeth, hooked black talons; limbs thick enough to bear weight. Substantial stone balcony projects below broad arched doorway; thick corbels support intact deck. One hindfoot plants on outer-left balcony deck, sole loaded, claws curled over lip. Two defenders stay inside doorway: archer forward at right, drawn bow and arrow aimed up at dragon's face; swordsman beside and slightly behind, sword raised toward breach. Figures and weapons have distinct silhouettes; neither stands on balcony. Forelegs and far hindleg grip stone behind torso and around far tower curve, bearing most weight; claws stay concealed. Only balcony hindfoot grips visibly near doorway. Wings bear no weight. Muzzle thrusts down and inward; jaws wrench bitten upper-left arch stones outward and down. Cracks spread through adjacent voussoirs; blocks, chips, dust fall free through open air, leaving gaps in arch. Arch partly breached; balcony and tower intact; defenders untouched. Round fortress tower built of large weathered stone blocks, clear courses, deep mortar seams, local claw gouges. Broad recessed doorway through thick wall frames both defenders; too small for dragon's head and shoulders. Broken arch reveals pale fresh stone against aged gray masonry. Interior stone chamber has enough depth for defenders' planted stances and no furnishing across sightlines. Clear cerulean sky behind dragon, faint distant battlements only; no other figures, machinery, or siege activity. Exterior three-quarter camera, slightly below dragon's shoulders, facing doorway across tower curve. Tower fills right half; dragon torso and flared wing fill left foreground, cropped by top and left edges. Balcony projects toward viewer under arch, hindfoot visible on outer-left deck. Head remains above and left of doorway; only forward jaws overlap upper-left arch rim, leaving central and lower-right opening clear for both defenders. Separate weapons, bite, falling stones, and bracing foot; exposed right-side wall has no limbs or claws. Clear sky outlines dragon. Dramatic fantasy digital illustration, dimensional painting, crisp focal edges. Strong daylight from behind viewer, slightly image-left, lights dragon's face, neck, shoulders, planted foot, balcony, right tower face, and reaches both defenders and inner arch. Cool sky fill keeps right wall and doorway shadows shallow and open. Sunlit warm-gray stone, blue-gray shadows, chalk-white fractures; saturated emerald-green scales with subtle bronze ridges, rich golden belly scales, copper-russet wing leather, black talons; deep crimson archer surcoat, cold steel, wooden bow. Strong local contrast at jaw impact and claw holds; short stone-dust bursts, falling angular rubble clearly separated from arch underside, sharp material response. Broader painted forms for cropped body, distant battlements, and sky. Clean air, controlled shadows, no diffuse veil or bloom; convincing weight, not photographic finish.
The king had put his gold a hundred feet above the streets, behind iron doors and a
staircase six men could hold against an army. No ram could reach it. Every defense
assumed an enemy must climb.
Rhazek came out of the sky.
Forty feet of green armor struck the treasury balcony. Talons punched through the
parapet; the impact threw Borsik to one knee and snapped a crack down the tower
wall. Its wings thrashed above the battlements, hurling tiles into the courtyards. Its
nostrils flared against the stone. Beyond the arch lay the gold it had scented through
walls of stone. The dragon closed its jaws around the arch and bit.
The block did not fall. It exploded. Fragments shrieked across the balcony, slashing
Borsik's cheek and punching white scars into the door behind him. A splinter of stone
struck his shield with the force of a hammer, wrenched his arm across his chest, and
pitched the shield over the wall. Rhazek crunched the masonry and spat a hail of
shards into the air. Falling blocks punched through a tiled roof below.
Borsik hauled himself upright, longsword in his hands. His boots skidded on
powdered mortar. His ears rang so fiercely he could scarcely hear the creature
breathing. The green plates along the dragon's jaw overlapped like roof slates, each
too thick for his point. The beast reeked of hot iron and stone ground between teeth.
One amber eye tracked the sword while the jaws seized another block. The dragon
did not bother turning from its work.
Behind Borsik, Eshren kept an arrow on the string. His first had shattered against the
scales beneath the jaw, leaving only a pale streak of scraped dust. He followed the
moving head with his bow, searching for an eye not screened by horn, cheek, or
masonry. Each time Rhazek drove forward, stone swallowed the target. A shot now
would waste the arrow.
The balcony lurched. A claw dragged through its coping, cutting a furrow deep
enough to bury a man's arm. Mortar blew from beneath Borsik's feet. He sprang
away as a slab sheared off and plunged into the street, taking the place where he
had stood. Eshren moved with him, his bow never crossing Borsik's back. Shards
rattled off their helmets. One gashed Eshren above the mail collar, but he kept his
arrow nocked and held the bow steady.
From the stair behind the iron door came the thunder of boots and polearms striking
the walls. Reinforcements. Three flights down. Rhazek heard them too. An ear
twitched toward the sound. Its talons dug deeper, and its jaws ripped half the arch
away.
The keystone burst against the parapet. Borsik ducked under a spray of knife-edged
granite. The arch sagged, its remaining stones grinding together. Beyond the
widening wound stood the treasury's iron door, its hinges sunk deep into masonry
the dragon was tearing apart. The next wrench could strip the entire frame from the
wall. Rhazek pushed its skull into the gap, testing the new breadth. Stone still
checked the sweep of its neck. One more bite and the head could scythe across the
balcony. No sword, no bow, no human body would keep it from the gold.
Eshren drew to his cheek. The bow dragged at the bones of his shoulders. The
string bit into his fingertips; the muscles across his back fought to keep the draw
from creeping forward. Every heartbeat drove another pulse of fire through his arms.
He held. Not an inch of draw surrendered, not a tremor permitted to travel down the
shaft.
Rhazek heaved another block from the jamb. Its jaws spread to disgorge a grinding
mouthful of rubble. For one fraction of a heartbeat, powdered limestone whitened its
teeth and left the thick red tongue naked behind them.
Borsik moved.
He stepped inside the hooked foreclaw, onto stone breaking beneath his boot, and
punched his sword between the lower teeth. Hot breath flayed his face. A fang
screamed along the steel. He thrust for the slick red muscle, between jaws wide
enough to take his arm at the shoulder.
The point found flesh.
Borsik ripped the steel free as the jaws clapped shut, the closing teeth shredding his
sleeve. Rhazek's head convulsed backward, wrenching a talon from the stone. The
claw tore a spray of rock across the balcony. Borsik flung himself low against the
broken wall. The lower fangs tore past a handspan from his face. Blood and lime
flecked the dragon's teeth. Its near eye swept up and clear of the arch.
Eshren had seen Borsik's foot leave the stone. He followed the recoil from its first
convulsion, before Rhazek's head came clear of the arch. The eye rose; the line
shifted with it. He held not where the eye was, but where it would meet the arrow.
The shattered arch kept falling. Talons hammered the parapet. Behind him, armored
men reached another landing. All that violence continued, but none of it entered the
narrow space between his aim and the moving eye.
The bowstring pulled against his fingers like a red-hot wire. The line came true.
Eshren opened his hand.
The arrow flew straight for the dragon's eye.
